First Thing Today Audio | August 11, 2021

Hot, humid weather continues over the Corn Belt, the $3.5 trillion spending package narrowly moves forward and GOP leaders weigh in on raising the debt ceiling...

Pro Farmer
Pro Farmer
(Pro Farmer)

Corn futures are 4 to 6 cents higher, taking back yesterday’s losses and extending the sideways trading range. Soybean futures are up 12 to 17 cents. Winter wheat futures are 1 to 4 cents lower, with SRW wheat leading losses. Spring wheat futures are narrowly mixed. The U.S. dollar index is slightly higher; crude oil futures are under pressure.

Heat continues to impact much of the U.S. with widespread excessive heat warnings and heat advisories in effect. Hot, humid conditions are expected to kick up strong to severe thunderstorms the next several days in southern and eastern areas of the Corn Belt, with the Great Lakes area most at risk today, reports the National Weather Service.

Refinitiv Commodities Research (CRF) slashed its 2021-22 Canadian wheat crop estimate by 4% to 29.1 MMT, citing continued heat across much of Western Canada and continued dryness.

The Senate voted 50-49 to take up a budget resolution that includes instructions on how to draft the $3.5 trillion human infrastructure spending package and greenlights it to bypass the 60-vote filibuster this fall. No Republicans voted to start the budget debate.

Most Republican senators have signed on to a pledge to force Democrats to raise the debt ceiling through procedures that don’t rely on GOP votes, escalating the political tug of war over who is responsible for keeping the U.S. from defaulting, the Wall Street Journal reports.

While the number of new Covid-19 infections is small compared with figures from the U.S. and other countries, China’s zero-tolerance strategy means tough countermeasures — likely to have a significant impact on growth if they don’t succeed in snuffing out the virus soon.

Dr. Scott Gottlieb, the former commissioner of the FDA, told CNBC that the current surge in Covid-19 cases in the U.S. may be the “final wave” of the pandemic in the U.S. “I don’t think Covid is going to be epidemic all through the fall and the winter. I think that this is the final wave, the final act, assuming we don’t have a variant emerge.

Boxed beef values climbed for a 14th consecutive day Tuesday. Meanwhile, feeder steers and heifers traded unevenly steady at Day 2 of an Oklahoma City feeder cattle auction yesterday, with demand said to be moderate to good.

October lean hogs stopped just a few cents shy of testing the July low, with the next layer of support layered from the 200-day moving average near $81.05 to the June low of $80.90. Cash hog bids edged a national average of 14 cents higher yesterday. This week’s kill is running well ahead of week and year-ago.